As a former English major, professional writer, and fan of books, I was happy to read in The New York Times that "small booksellers not only survived the pandemic, but many are thriving." More than 300 new independent bookstores have sprouted across the United States in the past couple of years. Given how bookstore sales fell nearly 30 percent in 2020, things could have turned out differently. “It’s kind of …
Beauty Brand Dangles NFTs Like Newly Discovered Jewels
| SHINY OBJECTS ALERT | YSL Beauty is dipping its manicured toes into web3 technologies. Stephan Bezy, CEO of YSL Beauty, says, “To us, web3 holds the promise of intensified experiences, where artistic reinvention and genuine emotions collide." Intensified experiences and colliding emotions? Sounds like a failed commune from the 1960s. https://youtu.be/wu9RJ7d8AL4 To make web3 accessible to everyone, …
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Gen Z Gamers Explore the Metaverse, Find It to Their Liking
VICE Media and Razorfish recently surveyed Gen Z gamers and learned that they spend twice as much time hanging out with friends in the metaverse than they do in real life. Survey respondents spend 12.2 hours per week playing video games versus 6.6 hours hanging out with friends in person. These gamers don’t only view their time in the metaverse as pure escapism, but also as an extension of real life. Notably, …
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Virtual Private Networks Play Critical Role During Wartime
Surfshark, a VPN company based in Lithuania, has experienced a 3500% surge in sales inside of Russia since February 24th–the day Russia invaded Ukraine. According to Surfshark's analysis, the Russian telecoms regulator Roskomnadzor has forced Google to delist more than 36,000 URLs that link to VPN services over the past month. The most significant spike of requests was recorded amid the second week of the war, …
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War in Ukraine Leads Western Firms to Close the Door on Russia
Horrible news and painful images are pouring out of Ukraine every day now, as the European country of more than 40M people struggles to survive and repel Russia's lethal invasion. The images and news from inside Russia are also disturbing as the Kremlin is viciously attacking anti-war protestors, closing media outlets, and tightening its grip before it loses its grip completely. Everyone loses in war. Here's …
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Dotdash Meredith Stops the Presses, Opts for Digital-Only Product
Popular magazines are disappearing. Is it because they're too expensive to produce and distribute? When compared to the digital models, of course, magazines are easily seen as costly media relics from another century. But the comparison of websites to print is not apples-to-apples. Not by a long stretch. You look through a magazine at your leisure. And how does your reading behavior change online? Online, …
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Is Anyone Fully Informing the Public? Not This Week
This coming Sunday, a parade of new ads will interrupt the NFL's programming. A few legacy brands will return to the Super Bowl with the horses that brought them. Most of the other advertisers will be looking to score points with customers and the press care of their innovative new approaches to their showcase (and expensive) celebrity endorsements. Amazon.com, for instance. https://youtu.be/d0UEAr8I9G8 And …
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Before You Change the World, (Subscribe to and Read) Bloomberg
Gated content is valuable content. It seems that every media company under the Sun today wants to make this argument. Bloomberg.com, for instance, wants $290 for the first year of unfettered digital access, and then $415/year each year thereafter. Or you, dear web surfer, get nothing. These are some hefty tabs for news. Is there something special in the Bloomberg sauce? According to their press release, "In …
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